helsinki

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My Favourite Coffee Pot – Broken

When an old favourite object breaks, I take a picture or make a drawing before throwing it away.

My wife has promised to try to re-attach the handle with epoxy glue. Besides being a sculptor and an archeologist, she is a professional restorer specialized in polychrome sculpture. So maybe there is still hope for this old pot.

My long-suffering sneakers

Very old high tops I had to finally throw away in Paris. They were not a famous brand and made in Czechoslovakia, but they had lasted long. So long that the textile parts had faded from black to purple.

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Senate square, Helsinki

Senate square, Helsinki
I kept being interrupted by heavy downpours that almost washed away this drawing. I opened my umbrella and switched to water-proof markers.

Most of the buildings on the square were designed by Carl Ludvig Engel, all in the neoclassical style.

I love this square because it exemplifies the forces that shape a city. On its four side are:
1) The Church
2) The University
3) The Senate
4) A mixed bag of commerce: Shops, a bank, a café that also shows art movies (one of my favourites, but now closed for renovation). The mayor’s residence is squeezed a bit on the side, and there used to be a police station, but they got bumped.

– And The Czar in the middle of the square.

I’ll get some more sketches done later when the tourist buses leave…

Sketchbook Helsinki August 26, 2010_1

Yes, it’s a huge ferryboat behind the building. It’s bigger than the buildings in the old town.  They cross the Baltic between Helsinki and Stockholm daily.

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A reluctant model – our cat

Sketchbook_Helsinki_2009_029, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.

Our cat Nestor Burma (named after a detective created by Léo Malet. Il met le mystère K.O. )does not like to be photographed or sketched. Either he fakes a sudden urge to go explore the other room or just looks annoyed.

In this drawing he lacks detail, as he left almost immediately.

Sketchbook_Helsinki_2009_004

Here he is, looking annoyed and moving around.
Sketchbook_elokuu 04, 2010_4

You have to catch him in a deep sleep to finish a sketch.

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Studies of a single view over time



Winter Landscape: Sunrise, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.

I started painting a small watercolour of the same view everytime I noticed something new.

It’s amazing how much a single hill can change from day to day.



Winter Landscape: Sunset, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.



Spring Landscape: Sunset, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.



Fall Landscape #1, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.



Fall Landscape #5, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.



winter Landscape #9, originally uploaded by Brin d’Acier.